Diwali is the festival of lights(also known as Divali, Tihar, Deepavali). It is celebrated by Hindus all over the world. It is one of my favorite festivals because we get to dress and celebrate with good food and fireworks. As Nepali, we also do “Bhailo” which is like trick or treating during Halloween. Having said that, today I want to share with you my Diwali day that turned out to be a nightmare.
It was November 4th, 2013, a fair Saturday morning. We were still in our pajamas and had just finished our breakfast. I was playing on my iPads whereas my baby sister was upstairs playing in her room. My mom and dad were in the kitchen.
“Something smells weird..” My mom said looking outside the kitchen window.
“It smells like smoke,” she added while closing the window.
“ It’s probably the neighbors,” My dad said.
Mom shook her head showing her disagreement, “Who would want to have a barbecue early morning in November?”
My mom ran down to the basement while I was in the living room couch zoning out.
“There is smoke downstairs!!” My mom yelled “Oh my God!” “We have fire in our house.”
“We need to call the fire department,” my mom said in a shaky voice while rushing upstairs from the basement.
Dad also panicked and ran towards the kitchen counter to get his phone. I had no idea what was going on as I was watching youtube ads.
My mom ran upstairs to get my sister Jeeya and then rushed to get me. She almost dragged us out of the house.
“Where are we going, mom?” I asked curiously, holding her hand. She shook her head without saying a word. We ran out of the door through the garage. My dad was calling 911. Soon our driveway was filled with police cars and fire trucks. My sister was irritated by the loud noises made by the fire trucks and police cars. I saw the police and firefighters running towards the house. I noticed a big fog of smoke coming out of the garage. As it was cold and windy, we were shivering without a coat and shoes while standing on the wet grass. A kind police officer walked up to us and asked if we wanted to stay inside his warm car.
My mom, Jeeya, and I got into the police car whereas my dad had a jacket on so he stayed near the house. I stared out of the window. I was excited to see the firemen but mom looked scared. She was breathing fast and was mumbling her prayers. I felt she was acting strange. I knew there was a fire in our house but didn’t know how bad it was. A five-year-old me thought it was like the fire drill at school and said, “It is what it is!” I was sure that we would be going back into our house in a few minutes just like in fire drills at school. I was absolutely amazed to see the firefighters in our house because we had recently learned about them in school…
About 10-15 minutes later I saw my dad’s friends and our neighbors standing across the street far from our house. I recognized one face, it was Srija! My best friend Srija Dangal. She was with her dad and walked towards our car. I was happy to see her through the glass window and waved to her. Her dad was soon standing outside of the police car in shock and disbelief.
Excuse me, can we get out of the car? Our friend is here” My mom asked the policeman.
“Sure,” The officer said.
We got out of the car.
“Hi Srija,” I said, waving to her.
“Hello,” She said running towards me.
My dad walked towards us and the conversation started.
“How did it happen?” Mr. Dangal asked.
My mom described the incident.
He paused for a moment.
“Did the smoke detector alarmed you?” he further asked.
“No it didn’t!” she sighed.
“Maybe it was out of order,” he said…
A tall man in uniform came to us. He was the chief fire officer. “Everything is ok now, but… you cannot stay in this house for the next few months till it is fixed,” he said. He explained everything to my parents.
“Now, what?”, I asked myself.
Having another house would be cool.
Srija’s dad invited us to their house. “Come on! Let’s go,” Srija said.
We hopped into Srija’s car. “We can have a play date today,” Srija said, sitting by my side.
I was so excited. I loved going to Srija’s house because we watched Disney movies, gossiped in her room, played in her basement, and more!
November 4th was the special occasion of Diwali, a Festival of Lights (Also known as Tihar based on where you are from). We had invited friends to celebrate the evening with good food and fireworks. We were supposed to have a big puja ( prayer and celebration) at our house and we had so many plans. My parents had prepared lots of food and had decorated the house but the day turned out to be a disaster. Now we were pretty much homeless.
Srija and I played with dolls the whole afternoon. My parents returned in the evening with a sad face. I had many questions in my head. Why didn’t the fire alarm go off? It goes off in school. What if the fire had happened at night when we were in deep sleep? Where would we go now? I asked dad many questions. Dad told me that we have to rent a new place until we could go back to our home in a couple of months. Our Diwali was gloomy. But we celebrated the day with Srija’s family.
We enjoyed our stay at their home. Srija shared her toys, clothes, and books with me. About two weeks later we moved into our new rental home. It was a pretty small townhouse near Ruby isle but it was our new home. We didn’t have any furniture, clothes or toys. We had a nice small kitchen, two bedrooms, a cellar/ basement, and a laundry room. You may not believe this but there was a bathroom in the middle of the stairs! The house was beautiful but something felt off.
Where are my favorite toys and books? I asked mom.
“Mom are we poor now?” I asked her. My mom had tears in her eyes but she didn’t say anything. The following day, my kind uncle got me a lot of toys and books. We celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s in our new apartment. I loved the location of the apartment especially walking to yo mammas for ice cream which was down the block. Brookfield public library was down the street, and I loved going there and reading books.
One of my favorite memories was of the day when I lost the tooth. My two teeth came out at the same time. Soon 6 months passed and my parents shared the big news.
“We are moving back to our home,” My dad said. I was happy and sad at the same time.
“I love the apartment, ” I said to my dad. He smiled.
It was May when we moved back to our renovated house. Although life after the fire was very challenging for our family, we had the best memories in the last six months. I learned to be grateful for everything I had. I also realized that true friends are someone who supports you when you need them the most. The most important lesson was to make sure that you take good care of your home safety equipment like smoke detectors and fire alarms.
So you see, that Diwali brings bittersweet memories for me. As we are in a pandemic, Diwali won’t be the same but we will make the best out of it. On the occasion of Diwali, I pray to goddess Lakshmi to end all the challenges and bring prosperity to our lives.
Have A Happy And Safe Diwali!